Watercolor education, processes and step by step lessons, for Brigham Young University-Idaho Students, Educators and Groups or Individuals furthering their skills.
Gallery site for posting my watercolor work.
Web site SallyCannonEllis.com

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Wet in Wet washes. Warm North Grand Teton piece.

Resource is a photo I took at sun down. Value study placed in photo shop, then to gray scale

This is the back of the paper. Water was added to the back with a 11/2" sky flow flat brush.

Color was mixed first on my palette, being sure to mix enough color to do the entire first wash.

Water was added to the front of the paper painting water around the whites.

Note the heavy bead of pigment and water collecting at the top of each dry left white area.

Also I used the color mixtures in Zalton Szablo'a Color by Color to make part of the color selection for this piece. The color was perfect for a warm sundown.
Colors used: Cobalt Violet for its granulation and Manganese Blue for the same reason. Aureolin was also used for the warm yellow and Quinacridone Burnt Orange.

Also my cell phone.

My daughter called at the beginning of the wash to let me know the grades of her children.

My Grand Children. The phone was set on speaker phone and we carried on a great conversation and completed the first wash.

I don't always advice this; however I always take my children phone calls.

Here the bead has been taken out with a dry round brush.

The painting is still very wet. The slop of the mountain has been added using Ultra Marine Blue.

Adding middle to foreground trees. Pigment is heavy with less water. The painting is still very wet. Note how the trees spread easily.

More trees, varing value and hue.

Here I show my board and the paper being held down with clips.

As the paper stretches (and it will) I pull the paper tighter and re-clip.

I choose not to stretch the paper for wet in wet painting. Simply because I can not put water on the back of the paper to add extra moisture .

Note the form of the rocks starting to emerge.

Also the shape in the large white area is starting to draw my attention.

In the next washes I add more shapes in the whites to diminish this shape.

As one of my great students would say "Its lonely".

Close up of the resource.

Here I have drawn in the shapes with a pencil and measured out the masses of the form.

In the painting, the Tetons have been moved up, the trees varied and overlapping shapes have been added to the foreground.

Here the white trunks of the tree have been added by using the bevel at the end of the brush. I almost always start at the bottom of the tree trunk and push up with the handle of the brush. If it makes a dark line its still to wet. It it creates a white line it is still damp and pliable.